The Attorney General of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, made a televised public address this Monday to justify the judicial measures taken by his office against the lawyer Rocío San Miguel, director of the NGO Citizen Control.
Saab accused San Miguel of carrying out espionage work, of using strategic information from the Venezuelan State and of having knowledge of and being part of a military conspiracy discovered by the authorities, called the White Bracelet.
The arrest and immediate judicialization of San Miguel and his family - his daughter, two of his brothers, his partner and a close friend - has produced stupor, fear and indignation in many Venezuelans, as well as a long chain of solidarity reactions from many advocacy organizations. civil society.
This Tuesday a protest is called in the area of La Castellana, east of Caracas, very close to the Spanish Embassy, to demand his release.
San Miguel is a Venezuelan with Spanish ancestors.
“It is delicate to have an NGO as a front for those who practice terrorist actions,” Saab said in his speech, in apparent response to criticism.
“What would happen in the United States, in Spain, if a situation of this type were discovered?” She added.
Saab stated that his office has “sufficient elements of conviction” to affirm that San Miguel had full knowledge of a military movement that planned to violently take over barracks in the Andean areas of the Táchira State and assassinate Freddy Bernal, a well-known Chavista militant and current governor of that state. border territory.
“It is absolutely incompatible to be a defender of human rights and at the same time take part in a plan to attack barracks and kidnap authorities,” he added.
"Mrs. San Miguel served as a spy, through her partner, and as public relations with members of the Armed Forces to plan actions against the Venezuelan state."
Citizen Control, the NGO run by San Miguel, has for years been an instrument for interpreting the internal situation of the Armed Forces, its operations and its priorities.
His analyses, widely used in the national debate, have enjoyed the respect of the majority of the country.
San Miguel's work, as well as that of many journalists who have specialized in covering military sources, became over the years an increasingly risky, secretive and complex activity.
Saab added that maps of numerous military installations in the country were seized from San Miguel, with their respective security zones, and stated that all the seized material was part of information “that is a reserve of the Venezuelan State.”
She added that the activist had profiles of the country's current military commanders, with lists of all the nation's military personnel and that she delivered that information “to a European ambassador” in Caracas.
The prosecutor harshly criticized the voices that denounced the existence of a forced disappearance in the case of her arrest - an accusation that he described as “an insult and a mockery” - and added that this weekend her relatives went to visit her.
“What disappearance?” he asked.
Joel García, defense attorney for San Miguel, has confirmed that he received the sight of his relatives, after remaining incommunicado for several days.
“Her daughter was able to verify that her mother, despite the unjust deprivation of her freedom, is strengthened and very confident in her innocence, certain that there is nothing that would implicate her in the crimes that she committed. "they are charged."
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